“Is the Corona Pandemic Wanted by God?”

A Seminar Concept for the Religious Educational Approach of Theological Conversations That is Based on Current Questions of Students

Abstract

How can the professionalization of prospective teachers in regards to the successful religious educational approach of Children and Youth Theology be activated and developed already in university contexts? Framed in the Kassel study profile for theological conversations, developed by Petra Freudenberger-Lötz (cp. 2013, p. 89), the following article presents a specifically devised seminar concept that brings the individual theological asking and cogitation of students into focus – in preparation for their practice-oriented leading of theological conversations. The seminar concept was developed during the Kassel projects PRONET and PRONET² which were promoted in the context of the so called “Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung” of the federal government and the states with funds of the Federal Ministry of Education. In this article, the originating seminar concept will firstly be theoretically justified in its didactic issues, then it will be represented praxis-oriented. The focus of this article is on the presentation of those parts of the seminar that are based on the current theological questions of students: For not only children and adolescents ask meaningful questions (cf. Freudenberger-Lötz, 2007, S. 21), but students who study theology and teaching also bring their own imaginations, thoughts, and conceptions to the university – and often wish to clarify personally significant questions here (cf. Riegel & Mendl, 2011, S. 349). Thus, the presented seminar concept, which takes up these questions, also and finally wants to contribute to the formation of involved researchers which is considered important for the leading of theological conversations (cp. chapter 2.2).